The use of electric brakes in aircraft systems is becoming increasingly popular. In such systems, electric motors are employed to drive a piston through gears, screws and the like, into a pressure plate of a brake disc stack. Typically, a plurality of actuators are associated with each brake assembly, generally being uniformly distributed thereabout. Prior art electric braking systems have been developed to incorporate antiskid technology within a centralized braking control unit that is located at, or uniquely associated with, the cockpit of the aircraft. However, these systems can have limited antiskid capabilities. The antiskid controller resides hierarchically above and separate from the brake actuators. In this configuration, the antiskid capabilities are generally limited to normal braking mode only, and not applicable to an alternate or emergency braking mode associated with the braking system. Accordingly, dispatchability of the aircraft is necessarily limited. With the antiskid system of the prior art being centralized to the braking system, a single failure can result in a grounding of the aircraft until that failure is fixed. There is a need in the art for a decentralization of the antiskid function which, when combined with dual output wheel speed transducers, will allow a braking system to retain antiskid on all wheels in the event of a single failure, while tolerating further failures and leading to improved functionality, safety, and dispatchability.
A decentralized and distributed antiskid control system has further advantages in being located in closer proximity to the brake actuators. In this fashion, weight reductions may be achieved by reductions in cable weight realized by shorter wheel speed transducer cable runs as compared to centrally located control in the cockpit or an avionics bay. Furthermore, signals to command and control specific actuators are available in the same enclosure with the antiskid controller.